VENGER CON is going great. First day down, two to go. The hyper-gonzo game at the end of today was just as out-there and fucked up as last year's. I ran from 4pm to almost 10pm, and the first death didn't come until an hour before we finished (though, it was prophesied to happen in the middle of the adventure). But once that dam broke, one or two additional PCs died. Shit was flying so fast, it was insane just trying to keep up with everything.
The Ghostbusters pulled up to the PCs investigating The Necronomicon inside a gargantuan violet-worm which was full of porn that got caught in a dimensional instability field resulting in witch-sex and demon-tentacle fucking inside the worm's cave-like violet cavity. Spamming those Cha'alt X-Cards worked their improv magic.
It reminds me of when I was GMing as a teenager. The PCs would start out as normal mutant-opossum martial artists with machine guns and end with Satan getting blown-up by the Ko-dan armada. But Cha'alt is that on steroids... it goes to eleven, hoss.
Anyway, the reason for this blog post is my sharing the Cha'alt opening. This is the background vibe of what's going on. Even though some of this didn't affect the actual adventure, it's still a good idea to lay the foundation.
The State of Things
These are dark times.
It’s been 6 long, difficult years since the O’Bannon Accords which
resulted in a cease-fire between the Federation and native governments of
Cha’alt. Factions at home along with a
thousand alien cultures have splintered into a pot where nothing melts and no
one assimilates… everything is competition; hostilities range from
micro-aggressions to genocide to jiha’ad, depending on region, local authority,
and socio-economic status. You could go
to sleep in a stable and prosperous settlement of the deep desert and wake up
in a warzone.
In the end, nothing has changed… the Federation wants your
resources and will destabilize as much as they can to end export restrictions,
non-Federation aliens want many different things – some want to invest, others
want to exploit, there’s surging tourism along with smuggling, graverobbing,
and running from the law.
As adventurers, you’ve been force-fed multi-culturalism even
before the cease-fire. With a swig of
artificial water, an A.I. navigational system ported into your reptilian
riding-spider, and the names of 37 different gods (some openly antagonistic to
the Old and New Gods of Cha’alt) chanted during daily public prayer, you thread
through streets and boroughs of demons, Kha’alestinians, droids, replicants, so
many shades of elves you need a color-wheel just to identify them all, humans,
humanoids, alien off-worlders, and various other creatures on your way to the
next job.
No matter how bad it is out there, the Gods must be paid in
blood. Priests demand ritual sacrifices
– the blood of one-hundred-and-eleven humanoids is spilled every month. The saba’ath continues no matter how much
civil unrest. The poor, infirm, old,
diseased, criminals, and non-believers are much more likely to be put to the
sword than able-bodied mercenaries.
While this sounds like a sorry state of affairs – because it
is – remember, this is all pretend. So, feel
free to go Grand Theft Auto in this dark paradise; balls-out, no remorse, fuck
‘em if they can’t take a joke. Remember
what Robert E. Howard said about Conan as a protagonist vehicle for throwing
off the shackles of civilization. Back
and forth extremes of colonization and decolonization have resulted in
disastrous policies such as defund police, abolish immigration enforcement,
universal healthcare (fun-fact… once you fill-out the paperwork and pay the
50-talon fee, the online correspondence course to become a fully licensed
medical doctor takes a fortnight to complete), there is no border security, and
prisons vacated all their convicts.
Laws still exist, but they only protect those who can afford
it. Adventurers (especially of the 3rd
level variety) are several cuts above the average citizen, as the vast majority
are too weak from hunger and thirst to fight back. Get rich or die trying… or, you know, don’t
worry about riches – go after fame, power, retribution, pussy, or whatever your
personal goals happen to be.
Surprise, motherfucker… and welcome to Cha’alt!
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